Churches of Christ (Restoration Movement)

Baptism by immersion is necessary FOR the remission of sins - the point at which one is actually saved. An unbaptized believer is not yet forgiven; someone sprinkled as an infant or who 'prayed a sinner's prayer' without immersion 'for remission' is typically regarded as not yet a Christian.

Their basis
They read the conversion texts at face value: Peter's 'Repent and be baptized... for the forgiveness of your sins' (Acts 2:38); 'baptism now saves you' (1 Pet 3:21); 'be baptized and wash away your sins' (Acts 22:16); 'whoever believes and is baptized will be saved' (Mark 16:16); baptism unites us with Christ's death and resurrection (Rom 6:3-4). They argue the modern separation of faith from baptism is a later Protestant novelty the apostles never made, and that baptism is not a 'work' but the obedient response of faith by which one receives grace.

Scripture answers
Scripture does tie baptism tightly to conversion - it is the normal, expected response of faith, not an optional afterthought. But it locates the saving power in grace received through faith, not in the water or the act as such. Paul says we are saved by grace through faith, 'not of works, so that no one can boast' (Eph 2:8-9), and repeatedly that a person is justified by faith apart from works of law (Rom 3:28; 4:3-5; Gal 2:16). The thief on the cross was told 'today you will be with me in paradise' unbaptized (Luke 23:43); Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit - the mark of salvation - while Peter was still speaking, BEFORE any water (Acts 10:44-48); Paul says Christ sent him 'not to baptize but to preach the gospel' (1 Cor 1:17), an odd thing to say if baptism were the moment of salvation. Baptism is the God-given sign and seal of a faith that has already laid hold of Christ - 1 Pet 3:21 itself clarifies it saves 'not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience.'

Eph 2:8-9Rom 3:28Rom 4:3-5Gal 2:16Luke 23:43Acts 10:44-481 Cor 1:171 Pet 3:21

In fairness: They are right to take baptism far more seriously than much of evangelicalism does. The New Testament simply does not know an unbaptized believer as a settled category - conversion and baptism are joined at the hip in Acts, and the modern 'baptism is just a public symbol you can get around to later' attitude is genuinely weaker than the text. Their instinct to honor Acts 2:38 as written is a corrective the wider church needs.

Worship music must be a cappella - vocal only. Musical instruments in corporate worship are rejected as unauthorized and sinful additions to New Testament worship.

Their basis
The 'regulative principle' plus the argument from silence: the New Testament commands singing but never instruments (Eph 5:19 - 'making melody in your heart'; Col 3:16 - 'singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs'), and there is no example of an instrument in an apostolic assembly. What God did not authorize, they hold, He forbade; instruments are therefore a human innovation like the additions that corrupted the church.

Scripture answers
Silence is not the same as prohibition. Scripture positively commands God's people to praise Him with instruments (Ps 150:3-5; Ps 33:2-3; 2 Chr 29:25 ties instruments to a command through the prophets), and the worship of heaven itself includes harps (Rev 5:8; Rev 14:2; Rev 15:2). The word 'making melody' (Greek psallo) in Eph 5:19 originally meant to pluck a string. Christian liberty forbids binding on others as sin what God has not bound (Rom 14:1-6; Col 2:16); to make an unmentioned means a test of fellowship goes beyond what is written (1 Cor 4:6).

Ps 150:3-5Ps 33:2-32 Chr 29:25Rom 14:1-6Col 2:161 Cor 4:6

In fairness: Their reverence for simple, participatory, congregational singing is a real gift - a cappella worship keeps every voice engaged and can be strikingly beautiful and unifying, and it guards against turning worship into performance. The value they protect is genuine even where the prohibition overreaches.

Restorationism / 'no creed but the Bible': reject denominational names, humanly written creeds, and denominational structures; be simply 'the church of Christ' as it existed in the New Testament, wearing no party name and confessing no man-made confession.

Their basis
The plea for unity through restoration: Paul rebukes party labels ('I am of Paul... of Apollos') and pleads that there be no divisions (1 Cor 1:10-13); congregations in the New Testament are called 'the churches of Christ' (Rom 16:16); believers were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). Creeds, they argue, divide and add to Scripture, while the Bible alone can unite.

Scripture answers
This is a deeply biblical impulse - and it echoes the very charter of honest translation: back to the text, beholden to no party. Scripture does call for one body and one faith (Eph 4:3-6) and warns against sectarianism (1 Cor 3:4-7). Yet Scripture also hands down summaries of the faith to be guarded and confessed (1 Cor 15:1-4; 1 Tim 3:16; 2 Tim 1:13 'the pattern of sound words'; Jude 3 'the faith once delivered') - a good creed only restates Scripture so error can be named. The caution is that 'restoring the one true church' can quietly harden into its own tradition and party spirit, the very thing it set out to escape.

1 Cor 1:10-13Rom 16:16Acts 11:26Eph 4:3-61 Cor 15:1-42 Tim 1:13Jude 3

In fairness: This is their best and truest instinct, and it is right. The longing to strip away centuries of accretion and simply BE New Testament Christians - to let the Bible speak without a denominational filter - is exactly the anti-sectarian, back-to-the-text impulse the gospel commends. The problem is not the aim but the irony that restorationism became its own tradition.

Church exclusivism (held strongly by the more conservative wing): the Churches of Christ ARE the one true New Testament church, and believers in denominations - lacking correct baptism 'for remission' and the New Testament pattern - are generally regarded as lost or at least outside the saved church.

Their basis
If there is only one true church (Eph 4:4 'one body'), and if baptism for remission and the New Testament pattern are essential, then those outside that pattern are outside salvation. Jesus builds 'my church' (Matt 16:18), singular; the saved are added by the Lord to that one body (Acts 2:47).

Scripture answers
The Lord's true church is known by Him, not drawn on a denominational map: 'The Lord knows those who are his' (2 Tim 2:19), and He has sheep 'not of this fold' (John 10:16). Jesus rebuked the very move of unchurching those outside one's group: 'Do not stop him... whoever is not against us is for us' (Mark 9:38-40). Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom 10:12-13); fellowship is with all who love the Lord Jesus (Eph 6:24), and it is not ours to be another servant's judge (Rom 14:4). To make one's own movement the boundary of salvation is precisely the party spirit the Restoration plea rightly opposed.

2 Tim 2:19John 10:16Mark 9:38-40Rom 10:12-13Rom 14:4Eph 6:24

In fairness: In honesty, many - probably most - Churches of Christ today do NOT hold this hard exclusivism; it belongs to the more conservative, non-institutional wing, and mainstream members warmly recognize believers in other traditions. Where it is held, it flows from a sincere conviction that truth and obedience matter, not from arrogance.

The Lord's Supper must be observed every Sunday, and every Sunday only - weekly communion is treated as a binding New Testament requirement.

Their basis
Acts 20:7 - 'On the first day of the week... we came together to break bread' - taken as the fixed apostolic pattern, reinforced by the weekly gathering of 1 Cor 16:2 and the centrality of the Supper in 1 Cor 11:23-26. What the apostles patterned, they hold, the church is bound to keep.

Scripture answers
Weekly communion is an excellent and ancient practice - but Scripture presents it as a treasured freedom, not a dated law. Jesus said 'as often as you drink it' (1 Cor 11:25-26), specifying no interval; a narrative description of what the Troas church did (Acts 20:7) is not the same as a command binding every congregation to that day and no other. Paul explicitly warns against letting anyone judge others 'with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day' (Col 2:16-17; cf. Rom 14:5-6). The Table is grace to be received, not a calendar rule to divide over.

Acts 20:71 Cor 11:25-26Col 2:16-17Rom 14:5-6

In fairness: They have genuinely recovered something the wider church often lost. Weekly communion IS the pattern of the earliest church and the practice of Christians for centuries, and centering the Lord's Supper each Lord's Day is spiritually rich and historically well-grounded - a strength, not merely a rule.